Since its debut in 2021, and several years of West End and international runs later, spooky sensation ‘2:22 A Ghost Story' is now embarked on a UK tour and plays this week at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley.
It's not hard to see why ‘2:22 A Ghost Story' has proven such a hit and thrilled new audiences night after (long and creepy) night. The setting and the concept is relatively straightforward, and so too is the staging. What should be a cosy domestic scene – a partially renovated old house in the process of gentrification – is somehow sinister and unsettling. Gloomy bifold doors at the back cast eerie reflections. The security light blinks on, revealing a garden shed full of the last owner's tools. A door leads upstairs to where a baby is sleeping. A digital clock marks the passage of time.
The residents are Sam (James Bye) and Jenny (Shvorne Marks), and their infant daughter. Joining them for an evening in their new home are Sam's old university friend Lauren (Natalie Casey) and her latest boyfriend Ben (Grant Kilburn). Aside from the awkward history between Sam and Lauren, and Ben's inability to fit in well within the higher social circle, there's another reason why the evening doesn't turn out to be the pleasant dinner party that had been planned – the place is haunted. Sam has been away from home so has missed the creepy events of the past few evenings, and he's sceptical of his wife's claims about things that go bump in the night. But Jenny is losing her mind with the terror of what she has endured. And the worst happens every evening at the same time – 2:22. As the clock ticks relentlessly towards that witching hour in the dead of night, the drinks flow and tensions spill to the surface. But none of the gathered forget the underlying mystery.
‘2:22 A Ghost Story' is an effective piece of theatre that capably holds the audience in the palm of its hand from start to finish. Danny Robins' clever script ably builds and then sustains suspense. But he also layers the supernatural events with psychological insights. Why do some people believe in ghosts but not others? What do people think ghosts are? Sam is determined that science and rationality has all of the answers, but Lauren saw a ghost in her childhood, Ben had an inexplicable experience when he was a young boy, and Jenny has returned to the Christian faith Sam talked her out of when she believes her child may be in danger from a hostile spirit. This causes tensions between all of them, but most pertinently between husband and wife, especially when winning the argument becomes more important to Sam than comforting his scared spouse.
There are also tensions between characters' values that the play explores well. Ben is an amiable Cockney who disapproves of Sam and Jenny's renovations – stripping the old house of its character and history. The writer is careful to not come down on one side of the argument or the other, but presents all characters as fully rounded. Sam isn't quite so smug and arrogant that he can't apologise when he oversteps the mark, and Ben may be unsophisticated but his manners are much better than Sam's. A great pay-off is when Ben and Jenny connect over a shared belief that there may be more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in Sam's philosophy, and Ben finds his ally in the group.
The performances in this production of ‘2:22 A Ghost Story' are to be commended, and the cast gels well. Playing drunk is no easy task, but Natalie Casey is impressive at playing boorish after too many glasses of wine. It nagged me for a while who she reminded me of, but it eventually twigged that she was (rather successfully) channeling her inner Katharine Hepburn. James Bye has a lot of fun with Sam. He perhaps overplays him in a few scenes, but we all know know-it-alls, and the balance he strikes between endearing and irritating is, in the final analysis, well-judged. We enjoyed Grant Kilburn's performance as Ben, who is probably the most relatable character, but there is an edge to him that he astutely chooses his moments to reveal. It's Shvorne Marks who steals the show as the increasingly frantic Jenny. Switching from domesticity to entertaining guests to descending into pure terror is no easy task, but Marks pulls it off magnificently. A large part of the reason the audience stays scared is because they believe her throughout every scene.
Whether or not ‘2:22 A Ghost Story' scares you is down to individual psychology. I can honestly say that the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end more than once, and I reflex gulped in anticipation of terror many times. I also jumped out of my skin, but I'll save the spoilers and not tell you why, or when. My companion took the theatrical tricks much more in his stride, though it's always the same old story whenever we watch horror movies. My main reservation is that one such trick to elicit a jump scare was overplayed, and eventually felt unearned. The play was strong enough without it.
I also felt that in an attempt to keep the pace high, the actors deliver their dialogue at speed in a few scenes, which misses some of the subtleties and risks leaving the audience playing catch up. The director does a magnificent job of ensuring that a creepy, unsettling atmosphere sustains. There is room within that to allow tense scenes to breathe a little deeper. I also think that, although ‘2:22 A Ghost Story' is easily the most terrified I have ever been at the theatre, it borrows from other ghost stories, such as ‘The Turn of the Screw' and some more recent chillers (no names in case of spoilers). But where it is strong in originality is in the psychological depth of the characters.
In the final analysis, we thoroughly enjoyed the spine-chilling experience of ‘2:22 A Ghost Story', which lives up to the hype. It is entertaining, troubling and suspenseful from start to thrilling conclusion. See it if you dare.
Cast: James Bye, Natalie Casey, Grant Kilburn, Shvorne Marks, Rochelle Harvey, Paul Sockett Writer: Danny Robins Director: Matthew Dunster Theatre: The Churchill Theatre, Bromley Running time: 120 mins (including interval) Performance dates: 15th – 20th June 2026 Book to see ‘2:22 A Ghost Story'
